In order to ensure against loss of data, computer systems are routinely backed up today on magnetic media, which often requires interactive responses and the physical presence of an individual. Since backup of large computer systems can require many hours to complete, backup of system data often occurs on other than a daily basis. For example, some systems implement an incremental dumping policy wherein a complete system data dump occurs periodically, i.e., weekly or monthly, with a daily dump only of those files which have been modified since the full dump. This is a partial solution, however, since the process can still be time consuming, interactive, and require the presence of an individual.
A need thus exists in the computer system field for an improved approach to backup store and restore of system data, and preferably for a technique which allows for continued operation of the computer system being backed up.